Scorchers shut-out resilient Renegades

Perth Scorchers hosted the Melbourne Renegades in a Big Bash League match at Optus Stadium on a warm, but not too hot evening in Perth. The weather was lovely and a great day for cricket and the stage was set for an entertaining match of T20 cricket for the 'party faithful' who after 18 months have been heavily disrupted through state government heavy-handed restrictions and requests that had almost killed off the game in Western Australia. Thankfully the game was resilient and strong enough to withstand these pressures and matches of all formats have returned. So, it was great to get out of the house and to be out there soaking in the atmosphere of a Scorchers home game.

With an impressive display from Cameron Bancroft hitting a career-best 95, staking his claim for the selectors to take notice of him for his chances to make it for the Ashes tour in June. The Scorchers posted a very defendable total of 212 hoping that this would be more than enough to secure them a home final. While the Scorchers were dominant with the ball also, an Aaron Finch 76 in his 100th match certainly caused the hosts to worry that the 212 might not be enough. Though it was not enough and the visitors fell short by 10 runs making 202.

There was some drama and controversy during the match with David Moody removed from the Scorchers bowling attack in the second over for two dangerous waist-height deliveries. The other moment was when Matt Kelly was bowling, a throw from Nick Hobson had deflected off Aaron Finch's bat and struck Kelly in the face. He was laying there from the incident motionless and the crowd had feared the worst. But after a few moments gingerly walked off the ground after being assessed and under concussion rules was subbed off and replaced by Peter Haztoglou to finish the over. 

The win secures the qualifying final spot against the Sydney Sixers and the chance to host the final if they make it past a team who is in form. As for the food, it was very nice but certainly stacks up very, very quickly price-wise which is a shame as it does place pressure on families who simply wish to take their children out to watch some cricket and to have them fed and watered.

Two small 390mL cokes were 10.90, 5.45 each. Calipo ice-creams were 4.70 and were a treat in the balmy Perth evening. That totalled 20.30 with two captain morgan cans of rum at 27.80, making it 13.90 each. While they were delicious and hit the spot after a long week and enjoying over the cricket. It would really hurt the balance if I were to have at least 3-4 of these. Food wise I had chips with butter chicken loaded fries. While that was very delicious and stadium food in Perth has improved a lot since the early days of my times watching sport of something slapped together and told to cough up the money for something rather unsatisfying are a thing of the past. It was 12 dollars and was a good portion, though in a perfect world, a little more butter chicken and yoghurt would have been nice haha!

Also purchased were 600mL bottles of Pepsi at 5.20 and popcorn chicken at 8 dollars. Rather on par with chicken chains such as KFC, Chicken Treat, Red Rooster and Oportos essentially. Therefore, no complaints there and the chicken was very nice. The drinks were what you would expect, but south of 6 dollars compared to other venues was a welcomed change. All in all no complaints in the taste department for the food, drink and ice-creams. Though it all added up and with the creeping costs of living not being checked by the powers that be, it might make people rethink spending at sporting venues and events. 

Was a great day at the cricket and always a pleasurable experience to head to Optus Stadium to watch, well anything really.

Scorchers Downgrade Hurricanes to a Mild Storm

Perth Scorchers played host again for another T20 installment of the Big Bash League at Optus Stadium with the Hobart Hurricanes hoping to bring the defending champions down a few pegs and to take away a valuable away win on a pleasant Perth summer afternoon and early evening. Hobart have been playing some decent T20 cricket and with some good form they were hoping to continue and stake their claim for finals just around the corner. However, the home side had other plans and were also wishing to continue their good form, only this time they would be instrumental in doing so, flexing their muscle in restricting the visitors. Thus showing why they are 'built tough' and why it is a difficult environment to play T20 cricket in the 'furnace'. Yes that is very cringey, but that is essentially what T20 Big Bash League cricket is all about.

Hobart batted first and were just not very comfortable out in the middle and were not given the opportunities to get their innings going. No batsman stood out individually with a few twenties but other than that there were no batsmen who caused any trouble to the Perth bowling attack. The only saving grace was that the visitors survived the twenty over and did not lose all ten wickets. They finished their innings 9 wickets for 146 runs. Then it would be Perth's turn to bat, face the music and chase down the rather gettable target.

While two wickets did fall rather early for the Scorchers, it did not look likely that they were going to fall into a heap and crumble under pressure. Aaron Hardie's 90 was instrumental alongside Josh Inglis' 53 was all that was needed to ensure the win, but also these two players' cases for national selectors for the Ashes and future tours in 2023 and the next World Test Championship cycle of 2023-25. The evening was simply all Perth with Hardie, Inglis starring with the bat and a shared all-round performance by the Scorchers with the ball.

This time round I had the fiery nachos for 14 dollars and Hazy As pale ale for 10.90. The nachos were straight forward and were rather nice. Though not as 'fiery' as I would have hoped, as Australians are not known for a bit of spice. I guess that I am different there and welcome a bit of spice when it comes to my food. Though all in all it was rather nice. The sour cream, the three cheese and the pulled beef along with the salsa was delicious and went down nicely while I was watching the Scorchers pick apart the Hurricanes during a beautiful Perth summer's afternoon. This was complimented with the pale ale, normally I am not a big fan of pale ales, though this one complimented the nachos and was highly refreshing while watching the action all unfold. Call me pedantic, I would rather the cost of the beer be either 10 or 11 dollars, not something weird like 90 cents. Though with stadiums trying to push heavily using card only and banning cash means more price creeping such as this will inevitably occur and will be hidden behind excuses such as inflation and supply chain issues etc.

Yet again another great afternoon and early evening out at Perth Stadium to watch some T20 Big Bash League cricket and Perth Scorchers continue with their good form towards the end of the season with their hopes of defending the title becoming stronger more and more as each match passes. Though we will just have to see how it all unfolds.

Brisbane Scorched as Perth turn up the Heat

Perth Scorchers again played host for another lovely evening for T20 Big Bash League cricket, this time hosting the Brisbane Heat. Was a wonderful, pleasant night for cricket where it wasn't too hot and was a very pleasant night to enjoy the Scorchers secure another win against a Brisbane wanting to prove a point and to throw down the gauntlet to the defending champions that the title defence will not be a stroll in the park. 

Brisbane batted first and were not able to get going and were stop-start during their innings but finished their 20 overs on 171 runs with 9 wickets down. While not a score to scoff at, as it is certainly a defendable total in T20 cricket, However, Perth are in some very good form that would certainly be befitting of defending champions and their chase was relatively trouble-free with the loss of only three wickets in reply. Perth Scorchers won the game with their score of 173 for the loss of three. With Cameron Bancroft and Aaron Hardie posting solid half centuries to set up the win for the home side and to further stake each of the claims to be in national selector's thoughts for who to pick for the Ashes tour in June and July over in England and possibly in future test match series' in the next World Test Championship cycle of 2023-2025.

Colin Munro of the Heat did hit a respectable 45 and a Josh Brown 34 in their innings to post a reasonable total, but with experienced heads of Andrew Tye, Matthew Kelly and Lance Morris curtailed the Heat with their wicket-taking prowess ensuring that the Heat did not post a run-away total beyond 200. Overall a solid effort from Perth and are shaping up to be red-hot favourites to defend their BBL title.

This time around for the food I had a meal of butter chicken and rice and then followed up with still the Indian flavour of lamb saagwala. This is lamb and rice essentially in a sauce like consistency. The butter chicken with rice is self-explanatory and went down a treat as always is the case with butter chicken. The lamb saagwala, while was very nice with the lamb, as I am a huge fan of lamb, just didn't quite do it for me but was very filling and while the cooler winds of the evening came through was rather warming. Both were priced at 14 dollars and the portion for the price is reasonable, though perhaps 2 dollars too much I feel. To round it off I had 600mL of Pepsi which stings at 6.20 and is 1.20 too much. 5 dollars while a lot in my humbled working class opinion, is the maximum price you should be charging patrons and going beyond that is ridiculous. With that said, a cool ice-cold drink of cool drink definitely hits the spot, especially Perth summers.

Another solid performance by the Scorchers and another good viewing experience at Optus Stadium.

Clouds Loom and Place Dampener on New Years Test

It is 2023 and another year in the Australian test cricket calendar. In recent years the first test match for the commencement of the test cricket calendar year in Australia has been in Sydney, the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). This match is the third and final match of the test series between Australia and South Africa. While the Australian media have been building up the series as a gargantuan arm wrestle between two historically strong cricket and test cricket sides. It has not panned out this was with crushing losses by the visitors in Brisbane and then in Melbourne to wrap up 2022. So I am here with Punctual Football Fan Senior to watch day one of this test match and hopefully can see South Africa salvage something out of the test match and hopefully some positives from a series that has not been kind to them.

The last few days in Sydney have been very sunny with the heat being in full swing. It really is summer in Sydney and the past days have been great to get out and about and enjoying what Sydney has to offer. New Year's Eve and the following day have been blessed with great weather and was hoping that this would be the case for the test match. However, Sydney had other plans and the cloudy weather and the threats of rain, were building to give our match day viewing experience a more gloomier one. While it wasn't scorching hot like the previous days, it wasn't exactly cold, more cooler and humid as the clouds bearing rain would make it a bit of a muggier affair, but not uncomfortable.

The match had started as you would have expected with Australia winning the toss and electing to bat first. While in Melbourne this was an unusual decision to not do so, that turned out to be the winning strategy. With the decision to bat first this time is by far more conventional and safer, going on what has happened in the previous two tests, this might be yet another winning strategy. I forgot to mention that the Sydney test matches, specifically day 1 of a test match is the Pink Test, in celebration of Glen McGrath's wife Simone and to raise funds for the Glen McGrath Breast Cancer Foundation. While I personally think that there are many breast cancer foundations, it is very important to maintain medical research into cancer research and other medical conditions as there are people very close to me, who have been affected by these conditions and with our donations, we can hopefully find a solution.

The hosts started well, with the loss of an early wicket being the only blemish on the Australians as they were slowly building up a total for the South Africans to chase. While the South African's were not bowling too badly, they were not taking charge and putting Australia under serious pressure. This resulted in Australia just being able to push the ball around and tick the strike over, building the total at a steady pace. Though the clouds were constantly threatening to put a halt on the day's play at any time. While the reports stated that the rain was imminent and building from 70% up to 80, 84 and then at 95%. It was just a matter of time when this would occur and if it would be sufficient to halt play and cause serious disruptions to the day's play.

Well this certainly did occur at around 2.30 in the afternoon with the umpires opting to take tea to soak up the time and hopefully not lose too much time from the rain. While the rain was not heavy, nor light, it was enough to trigger both umpires to call tea earlier and then wait if the rain eases off and allows play to resume. The rain while easing, was not enough to resume play straight away and after a bit of a delay the umpires had checked and thought that it would be time to head back out and resume play. While this was all happening, due to the clouds and how Sydney had become more and more grey. Caused the lights to be switched on in hope of helping the game resume and be sufficient to play. While I have come all this way to watch test cricket and hoping that I am able to see more, it would be unfair and difficult to see the ball in such darkened conditions. Facing any type of bowler, be it fast, slow or a spinner, the darkness of the red ball in such gloomy conditions is too troublesome. So the game was delayed for bad light and then called, thus concluding the first day with Australia on 147 for 2 wickets.

Now the food was very good, now my new me is unable to try everything at once. I did give some dishes a try and thought they were simply delicious and were an excellent compliment to the game, just a shame about the weather depriving us to see a full day's play. To start off I had butter chicken Kathi roll with coriander. Now It comes with two and they're more open and wrapped. The servings were more than enough for me and I really did struggle to eat this. However, it was just simply a delicious butter chicken delight and you just cannot go wrong with such a British-Indian classic. I had this with a can of coke and the cool refreshing taste of coke just always hits the spot for me and today at the cricket was no different. The coke was 3.50 and the butter chicken Kathi rolls were 17 dollars each. While they were delicious and a nice portion, I think that it is probably 2 dollars overpriced but all-in-all was just what I wanted to start the day's play off and also double up as my breakfast.

As the rain was starting to threaten the game, we retreated to higher and more sheltered ground. This meant that we were further up into the grandstands and had a more elevated view of the match before the rain and the poor light had put an end to the day. It was a hotdog, but an "El Loco" hotdog to be more precise. This was at 12 dollars and was quite a serving compared to a regular, run-of-the-mill hotdog you would be more familiar with. It is somewhat akin to a Brazilian hotdog, but not as crazy with an overloading of toppings. It was with cheese, tomato, salsa, jalapenos, mayonnaise, sauce, spring onion and some chilli in for good measure. The hotdog itself was nice, the bread was soft and fresh. With the toppings making the whole thing go down nicely with a bit of a kick but not too spicy. I do like very spicy food, so for me it was rather tame, but it had a bit of a kick, or 'tickle' for me to notice the jalapenos and the chilli. What a sight to watch the game, with the Sydney CBD is the backdrop and just experiencing all the flavours of the el loco and having a can of sprite to top it all off. The can was the same price as the coke and the hotdog I think was a reasonable price for a gourmet style dog.

While the weather spoiled the plans for me to watch the first day's play between two very good teams in world test cricket, to get an almost full day was satisfying enough and to have good food to go with it made it all that more enjoyable. Stadium food in Australia has really lifted their game from the old days where it was basically supermarket food with a horrendous mark-up. While it is at times a bit on the pricy side, the taste of some of these does almost make up for it. I think that the price-taste value balance is almost there, though venues will always favour the price side of things and I do not blame them. Another enjoyable day at the cricket, despite the circumstances and hopefully I shall be back again soon and do it all over again.

Western Sydney Derby Day for a New Year

New Year's Day football played host to Western Sydney Wanderers and the newest Sydney team in the A-League, Macarthur FC. While the Sydney derby between Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers is the more famous and more heated derby, this one and perhaps Macarthur's derby with Sydney FC would be the lesser known, nor popular intra-Sydney derby matches. However, Macarthur are a new side and will take time for them to find their feet and for the rivalries to build between the oldest team Sydney FC and the other big side, their closest rival, Western Sydney. I think that despite the circumstances that have surrounded the introduction of Macarthur and Western United, it is too late to undo their creation and we, as football supporters, should support their participation in the league. Hopefully that through sound leadership, things do improve and settle down where they build their own stadiums and build sufficient supporter bases and that these teams can grow and become part of the A-League fabric, much like the original seven teams in the league.

Right, enough of my own opinions about the expansion teams and the league permeating into these entries. We are here to talk about the match I have gone to and talk about the food and drink, after all that is the name of my game here. Now, due to a change in train as I was leaving Redfern, I did not notice that from the same platform, the train switched from T1 to T9 and I realised that I was not heading to Parramatta by the time the train left Strathfield. Made the switch at North Strathfield and headed back to Strathfield to get back onto the right train to head towards Parramatta. This error and my mistake in not being vigilant cost me being late to arrive at the Commbank Stadium 15 minutes late. That delay had caused me to just miss the first two goals as I walked into the stadium. What a shame but that is the sad nature of Sydney trains and how it does take a bit of time to get going around this city.

I found the right block I bought the tickets; however, my seat would have been in the sunlight for the whole match. So, I opted to head further back up the grandstand and to a higher elevated seat position. The view is not too bad and is very similar to seating in the eastern grandstand at Perth Oval. While a bit high, both venues aren't too bad to watch football. However, this stadium is by far a better viewing and matchday experience. Not really hard to do as the New South Wales government is more committed to better sporting and general infrastructure than Western Australia; again, my opinion perhaps with bias.

The Wanderers were simply too good and were all over their newer western city rivals. Macarthur just had no answers and just could not find any way in past the home side's defences. The visitors, just could not string a threatening challenge when they tried to venture forward after all hands would be on deck to keep the Wanderers out. At half time Western Sydney were 2 nil up and were not looking like they would be challenged.

The second half was very much like the first. The Bulls, their nickname, just could not find any rhythm and were not able to mount a series threat to Western Sydney. Their attacks after keeping the hosts at bay were rather ineffective and tame. The visitors just lacked any form of bite and they were just not able to come up with any answers to combat the waves of Western Sydney attacks. They were fortunate enough that the Wanderers were not as deadly up front as they would have been 4 goals up by half time.

By the 73rd minute Western Sydney scored from a very lax Macarthur series of defending coughed up a very unnecessary goal to put themselves 3 goals down. This was further compounded when a rather soft penalty was conceded late in the game to send the home side 4 goals up. It looked like West Sydney had managed to find an easy way through Macarthur's defences, but they managed to remain steadfast and keep them to a 4-nil win.

The food on offer was a lot and I did not have time to go through many. I did have a stadium hotdog and I had a meatbox, which with all memes aside with Sydney's west, something that I had to try. The hotdog bread was fresh, soft and nice with the meat being hot and tasting fine for a hotdog. Was not unpleasant, but was very nice to have while watching the game. The meatbox though was really good. On a bed of chips, it was layered with melted cheese and with sour cream and chives, chilli sauce and tomato sauce, it really hit the spot. The chips could have done with some salt to give it some flavour after the delicious lamb and sauce with cheese ladened chips were consumed, leaving bare soggy flavourless chips. That is one aspect that I am not a fan of when it comes down to a meatbox. Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I need to be able to have some form of flavour from start to finish. The meatbox was 16.50 and it could have done with more lamb, but that is how I like my meatboxes. The hotdog was 6 dollars and the coke was also 6 dollars. Went down well while watching the game.

The first viewing experience of football for myself in western Sydney, or any form of watching A-League football in Sydney for that matter was a low-key, but enjoyable affair. It was nice to always watch derbies, and no matter whether they are new or with some history behind them, they are always interesting to watch and be part of that history and the journey of two teams. I have watched plenty of international football in Sydney and it was just a nice change to see some top-tier football in the biggest city in the country. Hopefully I will be able to watch Perth Glory play in any of these stadiums in Sydney one day. However, I do not think that the result would be in my favour as Perth are not a very good side.

Well, I hope that everyone had a good 2022, a wonderful first day of 2023 and may this upcoming year be filled with joy and fulfilled goals. Thank you again for taking the time to read my blog, now in my 10th year and 150 entries later.